----------------------
HAProxy
Configuration Manual
----------------------
version 1.4.27
willy tarreau
2016/03/13
This document covers the configuration language as implemented in the version
specified above. It does not provide any hint, example or advice. For such
documentation, please refer to the Reference Manual or the Architecture Manual.
The summary below is meant to help you search sections by name and navigate
through the document.
Note to documentation contributors :
This document is formated with 80 columns per line, with even number of
spaces for indentation and without tabs. Please follow these rules strictly
so that it remains easily printable everywhere. If a line needs to be
printed verbatim and does not fit, please end each line with a backslash
('\') and continue on next line. If you add sections, please update the
summary below for easier searching.
Summary
-------
1. Quick reminder about HTTP
1.1. The HTTP transaction model
1.2. HTTP request
1.2.1. The Request line
1.2.2. The request headers
1.3. HTTP response
1.3.1. The Response line
1.3.2. The response headers
2. Configuring HAProxy
2.1. Configuration file format
2.2. Time format
2.3. Examples
3. Global parameters
3.1. Process management and security
3.2. Performance tuning
3.3. Debugging
3.4. Userlists
4. Proxies
4.1. Proxy keywords matrix
4.2. Alphabetically sorted keywords reference
5. Server and default-server options
6. HTTP header manipulation
7. Using ACLs and pattern extraction
7.1. Matching integers
7.2. Matching strings
7.3. Matching regular expressions (regexes)
7.4. Matching IPv4 addresses
7.5. Available matching criteria
7.5.1. Matching at Layer 4 and below
7.5.2. Matching contents at Layer 4
7.5.3. Matching at Layer 7
7.6. Pre-defined ACLs
7.7. Using ACLs to form conditions
7.8. Pattern extraction
8. Logging
8.1. Log levels
8.2. Log formats
8.2.1. Default log format
8.2.2. TCP log format
8.2.3. HTTP log format
8.3. Advanced logging options
8.3.1. Disabling logging of external tests
8.3.2. Logging before waiting for the session to terminate
8.3.3. Raising log level upon errors
8.3.4. Disabling logging of successful connections
8.4. Timing events
8.5. Session state at disconnection
8.6. Non-printable characters
8.7. Capturing HTTP cookies
8.8. Capturing HTTP headers
8.9. Examples of logs
9. Statistics and monitoring
9.1. CSV format
9.2. Unix Socket commands
1. Quick reminder about HTTP
----------------------------
When haproxy is running in HTTP mode, both the request and the response are
fully analyzed and indexed, thus it becomes possible to build matching criteria
on almost anything found in the contents.
However, it is important to understand how HTTP requests and responses are
formed, and how HAProxy decomposes them. It will then become easier to write
correct rules and to debug existing configurations.
1.1. The HTTP transaction model
-------------------------------
The HTTP protocol is transaction-driven. This means that each request will lead
to one and only one response. Traditionally, a TCP connection is established
from the client to the server, a request is sent by the client on the
connection, the server responds and the connection is closed. A new request
will involve a new connection :
[CON1] [REQ1] ... [RESP1] [CLO1] [CON2] [REQ2] ... [RESP2] [CLO2] ...
In this mode, called the "HTTP close" mode, there are as many connection
establishments as there are HTTP transactions. Since the connection is closed
by the server after the response, the client does not need to know the content
length.
Due to the transactional nature of the protocol, it was possible to improve it
to avoid closing a connection between two subsequent transactions. In this mode
however, it is mandatory that the server indicates the content length for each
response so that the client does not wait indefinitely. For this, a special
header is used: "Content-length". This mode is called the "keep-alive" mode :
[CON] [REQ1] ... [RESP1] [REQ2] ... [RESP2] [CLO] ...
Its advantages are a reduced latency between transactions, and less processing
power required on the server side. It is generally better than the close mode,
but not always because the clients often limit their concurrent connections to
a smaller value.
A last improvement in the communications is the pipelining mode. It still uses
keep-alive, but the client does not wait for the first response to send the
second request. This is useful for fetching large number of images composing a
page :
[CON] [REQ1] [REQ2] ... [RESP1] [RESP2] [CLO] ...
This can obviously have a tremendous benefit on performance because the network
latency is eliminated between subsequent requests. Many HTTP agents do not
correctly support pipelining since there is no way to associate a response with
the corresponding request in HTTP. For this reason, it is mandatory for the
server to reply in the exact same order as the requests were received.
By default HAProxy operates in a tunnel-like mode with regards to persistent
connections: for each connection it processes the first request and forwards
everything else (including additional requests) to selected server. Once
established, the connection is persisted both on the client and server
sides. Use "option http-server-close" to preserve client persistent connections
while handling every incoming request individually, dispatching them one after
another to servers, in HTTP close mode. Use "option httpclose" to switch both
sides to HTTP close mode. "option forceclose" and "option
http-pretend-keepalive" help working around servers misbehaving in HTTP close
mode.
1.2. HTTP request
-----------------
First, let's consider this HTTP request :
Line Contents
number
1 GET /serv/login.php?lang=en&profile=2 HTTP/1.1
2 Host: www.mydomain.com
3 User-agent: my small browser
4 Accept: image/jpeg, image/gif
5 Accept: image/png
1.2.1. The Request line
-----------------------
Line 1 is the "request line". It is always composed of 3 fields :
- a METHOD : GET
- a URI : /serv/login.php?lang=en&profile=2
- a version tag : HTTP/1.1
All of them are delimited by what the standard calls LWS (linear white spaces),
which are commonly spaces, but can also be tabs or line feeds/carriage returns
followed by spaces/tabs. The method itself cannot contain any colon (':') and
is limited to alphabetic letters. All those various combinations make it
desirable that HAProxy performs the splitting itself rather than leaving it to
the user to write a complex or inaccurate regular expression.
The URI itself can have several forms :
- A "relative URI" :
/serv/login.php?lang=en&profile=2
It is a complete URL without the host part. This is generally what is
received by servers, reverse proxies and transparent proxies.
- An "absolute URI", also called a "URL" :
http://192.168.0.12:8080/serv/login.php?lang=en&profile=2
It is composed of a "scheme" (the protocol name followed by '://'), a host
name or address, optionally a colon (':') followed by a port number, then
a relative URI beginning at the first slash ('/') after the address part.
This is generally what proxies receive, but a server supporting HTTP/1.1
must accept this form too.
- a star ('*') : this form is only accepted in association with the OPTIONS
method and is not relayable. It is used to inquiry a next hop's
capabilities.
- an address:port combination : 192.168.0.12:80
This is used with the CONNECT method, which is used to establish TCP
tunnels through HTTP proxies, generally for HTTPS, but sometimes for
other protocols too.
In a relative URI, two sub-parts are identified. The part before the question
mark is called the "path". It is typically the relative path to static objects
on the server. The part after the question mark is called the "query string".
It is mostly used with GET requests sent to dynamic scripts and is very
specific to the language, framework or application in use.
1.2.2. The request headers
--------------------------
The headers start at the second line. They are composed of a name at the
beginning of the line, immediately followed by a colon (':'). Traditionally,
an LWS is added after the colon but that's not required. Then come the values.
Multiple identical headers may be folded into one single line, delimiting the
values with commas, provided that their order is respected. This is commonly
encountered in the "Cookie:" field. A header may span over multiple lines if
the subsequent lines begin with an LWS. In the example in 1.2, lines 4 and 5
define a total of 3 values for the "Accept:" header.
Contrary to a common mis-conception, header names are not case-sensitive, and
their values are not either if they refer to other header names (such as the
"Connection:" header).
The end of the headers is indicated by the first empty line. People often say
that it's a double line feed, which is not exact, even if a double line feed
is one valid form of empty line.
Fortunately, HAProxy takes care of all these complex combinations when indexing
headers, checking values and counting them, so there is no reason to worry
about the way they could be written, but it is important not to accuse an
application of being buggy if it does unusual, valid things.
Important note:
As suggested by RFC2616, HAProxy normalizes headers by replacing line breaks
in the middle of headers by LWS in order to join multi-line headers. This
is necessary for proper analysis and helps less capable HTTP parsers to work
correctly and not to be fooled by such complex constructs.
1.3. HTTP response
------------------
An HTTP response looks very much like an HTTP request. Both are called HTTP
messages. Let's consider this HTTP response :
Line Contents
number
1 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
2 Content-length: 350
3 Content-Type: text/html
As a special case, HTTP supports so called "Informational responses" as status
codes 1xx. These messages are special in that they don't convey any part of the
response, they're just used as sort of a signaling message to ask a client to
continue to post its request for instance. In the case of a status 100 response
the requested information will be carried by the next non-100 response message
following the informational one. This implies that multiple responses may be
sent to a single request, and that this only works when keep-alive is enabled
(1xx messages are HTTP/1.1 only). HAProxy handles these messages and is able to
correctly forward and skip them, and only process the next non-100 response. As
such, these messages are neither logged nor transformed, unless explicitly
state otherwise. Status 101 messages indicate that the protocol is changing
over the same connection and that haproxy must switch to tunnel mode, just as
if a CONNECT had occurred. Then the Upgrade header would contain additional
information about the type of protocol the connection is switching to.
1.3.1. The Response line
------------------------
Line 1 is the "response line". It is always composed of 3 fields :
- a version tag : HTTP/1.1
- a status code : 200
- a reason : OK
The status code is always 3-digit. The first digit indicates a general status :
- 1xx = informational message to be skipped (eg: 100, 101)
- 2xx = OK, content is following (eg: 200, 206)
- 3xx = OK, no content following (eg: 302, 304)
- 4xx = error caused by the client (eg: 401, 403, 404)
- 5xx = error caused by the server (eg: 500, 502, 503)
Please refer to RFC2616 for the detailed meaning of all such codes. The
"reason" field is just a hint, but is not parsed by clients. Anything can be
found there, but it's a common practice to respect the well-established
messages. It can be composed of one or multiple words, such as "OK", "Found",
or "Authentication Required".
Haproxy may emit the following status codes by itself :
Code When / reason
200 access to stats page, and when replying to monitoring requests
301 when performing a redirection, depending on the configured code
302 when performing a redirection, depending on the configured code
303 when performing a redirection, depending on the configured code
307 when performing a redirection, depending on the configured code
308 when performing a redirection, depending on the configured code
400 for an invalid or too large request
401 when an authentication is required to perform the action (when
accessing the stats page)
403 when a request is forbidden by a "block" ACL or "reqdeny" filter
408 when the request timeout strikes before the request is complete
500 when haproxy encounters an unrecoverable internal error, such as a
memory allocation failure, which should never happen
502 when the server returns an empty, invalid or incomplete response, or
when an "rspdeny" filter blocks the response.
503 when no server was available to handle the request, or in response to
monitoring requests which match the "monitor fail" condition
504 when the response timeout strikes before the server responds
The error 4xx and 5xx codes above may be customized (see "errorloc" in section
4.2).
1.3.2. The response headers
---------------------------
Response headers work exactly like request headers, and as such, HAProxy uses
the same parsing function for both. Please refer to paragraph 1.2.2 for more
details.
2. Configuring HAProxy
----------------------
2.1. Configuration file format
------------------------------
HAProxy's configuration process involves 3 major sources of parameters :
- the arguments from the command-line, which always take precedence
- the "global" section, which sets process-wide parameters
- the proxies sections which can take form of "defaults", "listen",
"frontend" and "backend".
The configuration file syntax consists in lines beginning with a keyword
referenced in this manual, optionally followed by one or several parameters
delimited by spaces. If spaces have to be entered in strings, then they must be
preceded by a backslash ('\') to be escaped. Backslashes also have to be
escaped by doubling them.
2.2. Time format
----------------
Some parameters involve values representing time, such as timeouts. These
values are generally expressed in milliseconds (unless explicitly stated
otherwise) but may be expressed in any other unit by suffixing the unit to the
numeric value. It is important to consider this because it will not be repeated
for every keyword. Supported units are :
- us : microseconds. 1 microsecond = 1/1000000 second
- ms : milliseconds. 1 millisecond = 1/1000 second. This is the default.
- s : seconds. 1s = 1000ms
- m : minutes. 1m = 60s = 60000ms
- h : hours. 1h = 60m = 3600s = 3600000ms
- d : days. 1d = 24h = 1440m = 86400s = 86400000ms
2.3. Examples
-------------
# Simple configuration for an HTTP proxy listening on port 80 on all
# interfaces and forwarding requests to a single backend "servers" with a
# single server "server1" listening on 127.0.0.1:8000
global
daemon
maxconn 256
defaults
mode http
timeout connect 5000ms
timeout client 50000ms
timeout server 50000ms
frontend http-in
bind *:80
default_backend servers
backend servers
server server1 127.0.0.1:8000 maxconn 32
# The same configuration defined with a single listen block. Shorter but
# less expressive, especially in HTTP mode.
global
daemon
maxconn 256
defaults
mode http
timeout connect 5000ms
timeout client 50000ms
timeout server 50000ms
listen http-in
bind *:80
server server1 127.0.0.1:8000 maxconn 32
Assuming haproxy is in $PATH, test these configurations in a shell with:
$ sudo haproxy -f configuration.conf -c
3. Global parameters
--------------------
Parameters in the "global" section are process-wide and often OS-specific. They
are generally set once for all and do not need being changed once correct. Some
of them have command-line equivalents.
The following keywords are supported in the "global" section :
* Process management and security
- chroot
- daemon
- gid
- group
- log
- log-send-hostname
- nbproc
- pidfile
- uid
- ulimit-n
- user
- stats
- node
- description
* Performance tuning
- maxconn
- maxpipes
- noepoll
- nokqueue
- nopoll
- nosepoll
- nosplice
- spread-checks
- tune.bufsize
- tune.chksize
- tune.maxaccept
- tune.maxpollevents
- tune.maxrewrite
- tune.rcvbuf.client
- tune.rcvbuf.server
- tune.sndbuf.client
- tune.sndbuf.server
* Debugging
- debug
- quiet
3.1. Process management and security
------------------------------------
chroot
Changes current directory to and performs a chroot() there before
dropping privileges. This increases the security level in case an unknown
vulnerability would be exploited, since it would make it very hard for the
attacker to exploit the system. This only works when the process is started
with superuser privileges. It is important to ensure that is both
empty and unwritable to anyone.
daemon
Makes the process fork into background. This is the recommended mode of
operation. It is equivalent to the command line "-D" argument. It can be
disabled by the command line "-db" argument.
gid
Changes the process' group ID to . It is recommended that the group
ID is dedicated to HAProxy or to a small set of similar daemons. HAProxy must
be started with a user belonging to this group, or with superuser privileges.
Note that if haproxy is started from a user having supplementary groups, it
will only be able to drop these groups if started with superuser privileges.
See also "group" and "uid".
group
Similar to "gid" but uses the GID of group name from /etc/group.
See also "gid" and "user".
log [max level [min level]]
Adds a global syslog server. Up to two global servers can be defined. They
will receive logs for startups and exits, as well as all logs from proxies
configured with "log global".
can be one of:
- An IPv4 address optionally followed by a colon and a UDP port. If
no port is specified, 514 is used by default (the standard syslog
port).
- A filesystem path to a UNIX domain socket, keeping in mind
considerations for chroot (be sure the path is accessible inside
the chroot) and uid/gid (be sure the path is appropriately
writeable).
must be one of the 24 standard syslog facilities :
kern user mail daemon auth syslog lpr news
uucp cron auth2 ftp ntp audit alert cron2
local0 local1 local2 local3 local4 local5 local6 local7
An optional level can be specified to filter outgoing messages. By default,
all messages are sent. If a maximum level is specified, only messages with a
severity at least as important as this level will be sent. An optional minimum
level can be specified. If it is set, logs emitted with a more severe level
than this one will be capped to this level. This is used to avoid sending
"emerg" messages on all terminals on some default syslog configurations.
Eight levels are known :
emerg alert crit err warning notice info debug
log-send-hostname []
Sets the hostname field in the syslog header. If optional "string" parameter
is set the header is set to the string contents, otherwise uses the hostname
of the system. Generally used if one is not relaying logs through an
intermediate syslog server or for simply customizing the hostname printed in
the logs.
log-tag
Sets the tag field in the syslog header to this string. It defaults to the
program name as launched from the command line, which usually is "haproxy".
Sometimes it can be useful to differentiate between multiple processes
running on the same host.
nbproc
Creates processes when going daemon. This requires the "daemon"
mode. By default, only one process is created, which is the recommended mode
of operation. For systems limited to small sets of file descriptors per
process, it may be needed to fork multiple daemons. USING MULTIPLE PROCESSES
IS HARDER TO DEBUG AND IS REALLY DISCOURAGED. See also "daemon".
pidfile
Writes pids of all daemons into file . This option is equivalent to
the "-p" command line argument. The file must be accessible to the user
starting the process. See also "daemon".
stats socket [{uid | user} ] [{gid | group} ] [mode ]
[level ]
Creates a UNIX socket in stream mode at location . Any previously
existing socket will be backed up then replaced. Connections to this socket
will return various statistics outputs and even allow some commands to be
issued. Please consult section 9.2 "Unix Socket commands" for more details.
An optional "level" parameter can be specified to restrict the nature of
the commands that can be issued on the socket :
- "user" is the least privileged level ; only non-sensitive stats can be
read, and no change is allowed. It would make sense on systems where it
is not easy to restrict access to the socket.
- "operator" is the default level and fits most common uses. All data can
be read, and only non-sensitive changes are permitted (eg: clear max
counters).
- "admin" should be used with care, as everything is permitted (eg: clear
all counters).
On platforms which support it, it is possible to restrict access to this
socket by specifying numerical IDs after "uid" and "gid", or valid user and
group names after the "user" and "group" keywords. It is also possible to
restrict permissions on the socket by passing an octal value after the "mode"
keyword (same syntax as chmod). Depending on the platform, the permissions on
the socket will be inherited from the directory which hosts it, or from the
user the process is started with.
stats timeout
The default timeout on the stats socket is set to 10 seconds. It is possible
to change this value with "stats timeout". The value must be passed in
milliseconds, or be suffixed by a time unit among { us, ms, s, m, h, d }.
stats maxconn
By default, the stats socket is limited to 10 concurrent connections. It is
possible to change this value with "stats maxconn".
uid
Changes the process' user ID to . It is recommended that the user ID
is dedicated to HAProxy or to a small set of similar daemons. HAProxy must
be started with superuser privileges in order to be able to switch to another
one. See also "gid" and "user".
ulimit-n
Sets the maximum number of per-process file-descriptors to . By
default, it is automatically computed, so it is recommended not to use this
option.
user
Similar to "uid" but uses the UID of user name from /etc/passwd.
See also "uid" and "group".
node
Only letters, digits, hyphen and underscore are allowed, like in DNS names.
This statement is useful in HA configurations where two or more processes or
servers share the same IP address. By setting a different node-name on all
nodes, it becomes easy to immediately spot what server is handling the
traffic.
description
Add a text that describes the instance.
Please note that it is required to escape certain characters (# for example)
and this text is inserted into a html page so you should avoid using
"" characters.
3.2. Performance tuning
-----------------------
maxconn
Sets the maximum per-process number of concurrent connections to . It
is equivalent to the command-line argument "-n". Proxies will stop accepting
connections when this limit is reached. The "ulimit-n" parameter is
automatically adjusted according to this value. See also "ulimit-n".
maxpipes
Sets the maximum per-process number of pipes to . Currently, pipes
are only used by kernel-based tcp splicing. Since a pipe contains two file
descriptors, the "ulimit-n" value will be increased accordingly. The default
value is maxconn/4, which seems to be more than enough for most heavy usages.
The splice code dynamically allocates and releases pipes, and can fall back
to standard copy, so setting this value too low may only impact performance.
noepoll
Disables the use of the "epoll" event polling system on Linux. It is
equivalent to the command-line argument "-de". The next polling system
used will generally be "poll". See also "nosepoll", and "nopoll".
nokqueue
Disables the use of the "kqueue" event polling system on BSD. It is
equivalent to the command-line argument "-dk". The next polling system
used will generally be "poll". See also "nopoll".
nopoll
Disables the use of the "poll" event polling system. It is equivalent to the
command-line argument "-dp". The next polling system used will be "select".
It should never be needed to disable "poll" since it's available on all
platforms supported by HAProxy. See also "nosepoll", and "nopoll" and
"nokqueue".
nosepoll
Disables the use of the "speculative epoll" event polling system on Linux. It
is equivalent to the command-line argument "-ds". The next polling system
used will generally be "epoll". See also "noepoll", and "nopoll".
nosplice
Disables the use of kernel tcp splicing between sockets on Linux. It is
equivalent to the command line argument "-dS". Data will then be copied
using conventional and more portable recv/send calls. Kernel tcp splicing is
limited to some very recent instances of kernel 2.6. Most versions between
2.6.25 and 2.6.28 are buggy and will forward corrupted data, so they must not
be used. This option makes it easier to globally disable kernel splicing in
case of doubt. See also "option splice-auto", "option splice-request" and
"option splice-response".
spread-checks <0..50, in percent>
Sometimes it is desirable to avoid sending health checks to servers at exact
intervals, for instance when many logical servers are located on the same
physical server. With the help of this parameter, it becomes possible to add
some randomness in the check interval between 0 and +/- 50%. A value between
2 and 5 seems to show good results. The default value remains at 0.
tune.bufsize
Sets the buffer size to this size (in bytes). Lower values allow more
sessions to coexist in the same amount of RAM, and higher values allow some
applications with very large cookies to work. The default value is 16384 and
can be changed at build time. It is strongly recommended not to change this
from the default value, as very low values will break some services such as
statistics, and values larger than default size will increase memory usage,
possibly causing the system to run out of memory. At least the global maxconn
parameter should be decreased by the same factor as this one is increased.
tune.chksize
Sets the check buffer size to this size (in bytes). Higher values may help
find string or regex patterns in very large pages, though doing so may imply
more memory and CPU usage. The default value is 16384 and can be changed at
build time. It is not recommended to change this value, but to use better
checks whenever possible.
tune.maxaccept
Sets the maximum number of consecutive accepts that a process may perform on
a single wake up. High values give higher priority to high connection rates,
while lower values give higher priority to already established connections.
This value is limited to 100 by default in single process mode. However, in
multi-process mode (nbproc > 1), it defaults to 8 so that when one process
wakes up, it does not take all incoming connections for itself and leaves a
part of them to other processes. Setting this value to -1 completely disables
the limitation. It should normally not be needed to tweak this value.
tune.maxpollevents
Sets the maximum amount of events that can be processed at once in a call to
the polling system. The default value is adapted to the operating system. It
has been noticed that reducing it below 200 tends to slightly decrease
latency at the expense of network bandwidth, and increasing it above 200
tends to trade latency for slightly increased bandwidth.
tune.maxrewrite
Sets the reserved buffer space to this size in bytes. The reserved space is
used for header rewriting or appending. The first reads on sockets will never
fill more than bufsize-maxrewrite. Historically it has defaulted to half of
bufsize, though that does not make much sense since there are rarely large
numbers of headers to add. Setting it too high prevents processing of large
requests or responses. Setting it too low prevents addition of new headers
to already large requests or to POST requests. It is generally wise to set it
to about 1024. It is automatically readjusted to half of bufsize if it is
larger than that. This means you don't have to worry about it when changing
bufsize.
tune.rcvbuf.client
tune.rcvbuf.server
Forces the kernel socket receive buffer size on the client or the server side
to the specified value in bytes. This value applies to all TCP/HTTP frontends
and backends. It should normally never be set, and the default size (0) lets
the kernel autotune this value depending on the amount of available memory.
However it can sometimes help to set it to very low values (eg: 4096) in
order to save kernel memory by preventing it from buffering too large amounts
of received data. Lower values will significantly increase CPU usage though.
tune.sndbuf.client
tune.sndbuf.server
Forces the kernel socket send buffer size on the client or the server side to
the specified value in bytes. This value applies to all TCP/HTTP frontends
and backends. It should normally never be set, and the default size (0) lets
the kernel autotune this value depending on the amount of available memory.
However it can sometimes help to set it to very low values (eg: 4096) in
order to save kernel memory by preventing it from buffering too large amounts
of received data. Lower values will significantly increase CPU usage though.
Another use case is to prevent write timeouts with extremely slow clients due
to the kernel waiting for a large part of the buffer to be read before
notifying haproxy again.
3.3. Debugging
--------------
debug
Enables debug mode which dumps to stdout all exchanges, and disables forking
into background. It is the equivalent of the command-line argument "-d". It
should never be used in a production configuration since it may prevent full
system startup.
quiet
Do not display any message during startup. It is equivalent to the command-
line argument "-q".
3.4. Userlists
--------------
It is possible to control access to frontend/backend/listen sections or to
http stats by allowing only authenticated and authorized users. To do this,
it is required to create at least one userlist and to define users.
userlist
Creates new userlist with name . Many independent userlists can be
used to store authentication & authorization data for independent customers.
group [users ,,(...)]
Adds group to the current userlist. It is also possible to
attach users to this group by using a comma separated list of names
proceeded by "users" keyword.
user [password|insecure-password ]
[groups ,,(...)]
Adds user to the current userlist. Both secure (encrypted) and
insecure (unencrypted) passwords can be used. Encrypted passwords are
evaluated using the crypt(3) function so depending of the system's
capabilities, different algorithms are supported. For example modern Glibc
based Linux system supports MD5, SHA-256, SHA-512 and of course classic,
DES-based method of crypting passwords.
Example:
userlist L1
group G1 users tiger,scott
group G2 users xdb,scott
user tiger password $6$k6y3o.eP$JlKBx9za9667qe4(...)xHSwRv6J.C0/D7cV91
user scott insecure-password elgato
user xdb insecure-password hello
userlist L2
group G1
group G2
user tiger password $6$k6y3o.eP$JlKBx(...)xHSwRv6J.C0/D7cV91 groups G1
user scott insecure-password elgato groups G1,G2
user xdb insecure-password hello groups G2
Please note that both lists are functionally identical.
4. Proxies
----------
Proxy configuration can be located in a set of sections :
- defaults
- frontend
- backend
- listen
A "defaults" section sets default parameters for all other sections following
its declaration. Those default parameters are reset by the next "defaults"
section. See below for the list of parameters which can be set in a "defaults"
section. The name is optional but its use is encouraged for better readability.
A "frontend" section describes a set of listening sockets accepting client
connections.
A "backend" section describes a set of servers to which the proxy will connect
to forward incoming connections.
A "listen" section defines a complete proxy with its frontend and backend
parts combined in one section. It is generally useful for TCP-only traffic.
All proxy names must be formed from upper and lower case letters, digits,
'-' (dash), '_' (underscore) , '.' (dot) and ':' (colon). ACL names are
case-sensitive, which means that "www" and "WWW" are two different proxies.
Historically, all proxy names could overlap, it just caused troubles in the
logs. Since the introduction of content switching, it is mandatory that two
proxies with overlapping capabilities (frontend/backend) have different names.
However, it is still permitted that a frontend and a backend share the same
name, as this configuration seems to be commonly encountered.
Right now, two major proxy modes are supported : "tcp", also known as layer 4,
and "http", also known as layer 7. In layer 4 mode, HAProxy simply forwards
bidirectional traffic between two sides. In layer 7 mode, HAProxy analyzes the
protocol, and can interact with it by allowing, blocking, switching, adding,
modifying, or removing arbitrary contents in requests or responses, based on
arbitrary criteria.
4.1. Proxy keywords matrix
--------------------------
The following list of keywords is supported. Most of them may only be used in a
limited set of section types. Some of them are marked as "deprecated" because
they are inherited from an old syntax which may be confusing or functionally
limited, and there are new recommended keywords to replace them. Keywords
marked with "(*)" can be optionally inverted using the "no" prefix, eg. "no
option contstats". This makes sense when the option has been enabled by default
and must be disabled for a specific instance. Such options may also be prefixed
with "default" in order to restore default settings regardless of what has been
specified in a previous "defaults" section.
keyword defaults frontend listen backend
------------------------------------+----------+----------+---------+---------
acl - X X X
appsession - - X X
backlog X X X -
balance X - X X
bind - X X -
bind-process X X X X
block - X X X
capture cookie - X X -
capture request header - X X -
capture response header - X X -
clitimeout (deprecated) X X X -
contimeout (deprecated) X - X X
cookie X - X X
default-server X - X X
default_backend X X X -
description - X X X
disabled X X X X
dispatch - - X X
enabled X X X X
errorfile X X X X
errorloc X X X X
errorloc302 X X X X
-- keyword -------------------------- defaults - frontend - listen -- backend -
errorloc303 X X X X
force-persist - X X X
fullconn X - X X
grace X X X X
hash-type X - X X
http-check disable-on-404 X - X X
http-check expect - - X X
http-check send-state X - X X
http-request - X X X
id - X X X
ignore-persist - X X X
log X X X X
maxconn X X X -
mode X X X X
monitor fail - X X -
monitor-net X X X -
monitor-uri X X X -
option abortonclose (*) X - X X
option accept-invalid-http-request (*) X X X -
option accept-invalid-http-response (*) X - X X
option allbackups (*) X - X X
option checkcache (*) X - X X
option clitcpka (*) X X X -
option contstats (*) X X X -
option dontlog-normal (*) X X X -
option dontlognull (*) X X X -
option forceclose (*) X X X X
-- keyword -------------------------- defaults - frontend - listen -- backend -
option forwardfor X X X X
option http-no-delay (*) X X X X
option http-pretend-keepalive (*) X X X X
option http-server-close (*) X X X X
option http-use-proxy-header (*) X X X -
option httpchk X - X X
option httpclose (*) X X X X
option httplog X X X X
option http_proxy (*) X X X X
option independant-streams (*) X X X X
option ldap-check X - X X
option log-health-checks (*) X - X X
option log-separate-errors (*) X X X -
option logasap (*) X X X -
option mysql-check X - X X
option nolinger (*) X X X X
option originalto X X X X
option persist (*) X - X X
option redispatch (*) X - X X
option smtpchk X - X X
option socket-stats (*) X X X -
option splice-auto (*) X X X X
option splice-request (*) X X X X
option splice-response (*) X X X X
option srvtcpka (*) X - X X
option ssl-hello-chk X - X X
-- keyword -------------------------- defaults - frontend - listen -- backend -
option tcp-smart-accept (*) X X X -
option tcp-smart-connect (*) X - X X
option tcpka X X X X
option tcplog X X X X
option transparent (*) X - X X
persist rdp-cookie X - X X
rate-limit sessions X X X -
redirect - X X X
redisp (deprecated) X - X X
redispatch (deprecated) X - X X
reqadd - X X X
reqallow - X X X
reqdel - X X X
reqdeny - X X X
reqiallow - X X X
reqidel - X X X
reqideny - X X X
reqipass - X X X
reqirep - X X X
reqisetbe - X X X
reqitarpit - X X X
reqpass - X X X
reqrep - X X X
-- keyword -------------------------- defaults - frontend - listen -- backend -
reqsetbe - X X X
reqtarpit - X X X
retries X - X X
rspadd - X X X
rspdel - X X X
rspdeny - X X X
rspidel - X X X
rspideny - X X X
rspirep - X X X
rsprep - X X X
server - - X X
source X - X X
srvtimeout (deprecated) X - X X
stats admin - - X X
stats auth X - X X
stats enable X - X X
stats hide-version X - X X
stats http-request - - X X
stats realm X - X X
stats refresh X - X X
stats scope X - X X
stats show-desc X - X X
stats show-legends X - X X
stats show-node X - X X
stats uri X - X X
-- keyword -------------------------- defaults - frontend - listen -- backend -
stick match - - X X
stick on - - X X
stick store-request - - X X
stick-table - - X X
tcp-request content accept - X X -
tcp-request content reject - X X -
tcp-request inspect-delay - X X -
timeout check X - X X
timeout client X X X -
timeout clitimeout (deprecated) X X X -
timeout connect X - X X
timeout contimeout (deprecated) X - X X
timeout http-keep-alive X X X X
timeout http-request X X X X
timeout queue X - X X
timeout server X - X X
timeout srvtimeout (deprecated) X - X X
timeout tarpit X X X X
transparent (deprecated) X - X X
use_backend - X X -
------------------------------------+----------+----------+---------+---------
keyword defaults frontend listen backend
4.2. Alphabetically sorted keywords reference
---------------------------------------------
This section provides a description of each keyword and its usage.
acl [flags] [operator] ...
Declare or complete an access list.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | yes
Example:
acl invalid_src src 0.0.0.0/7 224.0.0.0/3
acl invalid_src src_port 0:1023
acl local_dst hdr(host) -i localhost
See section 7 about ACL usage.
appsession len timeout
[request-learn] [prefix] [mode ]
Define session stickiness on an existing application cookie.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
this is the name of the cookie used by the application and which
HAProxy will have to learn for each new session.
this is the max number of characters that will be memorized and
checked in each cookie value.
this is the time after which the cookie will be removed from
memory if unused. If no unit is specified, this time is in
milliseconds.
request-learn
If this option is specified, then haproxy will be able to learn
the cookie found in the request in case the server does not
specify any in response. This is typically what happens with
PHPSESSID cookies, or when haproxy's session expires before
the application's session and the correct server is selected.
It is recommended to specify this option to improve reliability.
prefix When this option is specified, haproxy will match on the cookie
prefix (or URL parameter prefix). The appsession value is the
data following this prefix.
Example :
appsession ASPSESSIONID len 64 timeout 3h prefix
This will match the cookie ASPSESSIONIDXXXX=XXXXX,
the appsession value will be XXXX=XXXXX.
mode This option allows to change the URL parser mode.
2 modes are currently supported :
- path-parameters :
The parser looks for the appsession in the path parameters
part (each parameter is separated by a semi-colon), which is
convenient for JSESSIONID for example.
This is the default mode if the option is not set.
- query-string :
In this mode, the parser will look for the appsession in the
query string.
When an application cookie is defined in a backend, HAProxy will check when
the server sets such a cookie, and will store its value in a table, and
associate it with the server's identifier. Up to characters from
the value will be retained. On each connection, haproxy will look for this
cookie both in the "Cookie:" headers, and as a URL parameter (depending on
the mode used). If a known value is found, the client will be directed to the
server associated with this value. Otherwise, the load balancing algorithm is
applied. Cookies are automatically removed from memory when they have been
unused for a duration longer than .
The definition of an application cookie is limited to one per backend.
Note : Consider not using this feature in multi-process mode (nbproc > 1)
unless you know what you do : memory is not shared between the
processes, which can result in random behaviours.
Example :
appsession JSESSIONID len 52 timeout 3h
See also : "cookie", "capture cookie", "balance", "stick", "stick-table",
"ignore-persist", "nbproc" and "bind-process".
backlog
Give hints to the system about the approximate listen backlog desired size
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is the number of pending connections. Depending on the operating
system, it may represent the number of already acknowledged
connections, of non-acknowledged ones, or both.
In order to protect against SYN flood attacks, one solution is to increase
the system's SYN backlog size. Depending on the system, sometimes it is just
tunable via a system parameter, sometimes it is not adjustable at all, and
sometimes the system relies on hints given by the application at the time of
the listen() syscall. By default, HAProxy passes the frontend's maxconn value
to the listen() syscall. On systems which can make use of this value, it can
sometimes be useful to be able to specify a different value, hence this
backlog parameter.
On Linux 2.4, the parameter is ignored by the system. On Linux 2.6, it is
used as a hint and the system accepts up to the smallest greater power of
two, and never more than some limits (usually 32768).
See also : "maxconn" and the target operating system's tuning guide.
balance [ ]
balance url_param [check_post []]
Define the load balancing algorithm to be used in a backend.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the algorithm used to select a server when doing load
balancing. This only applies when no persistence information
is available, or when a connection is redispatched to another
server. may be one of the following :
roundrobin Each server is used in turns, according to their weights.
This is the smoothest and fairest algorithm when the server's
processing time remains equally distributed. This algorithm
is dynamic, which means that server weights may be adjusted
on the fly for slow starts for instance. It is limited by
design to 4095 active servers per backend. Note that in some
large farms, when a server becomes up after having been down
for a very short time, it may sometimes take a few hundreds
requests for it to be re-integrated into the farm and start
receiving traffic. This is normal, though very rare. It is
indicated here in case you would have the chance to observe
it, so that you don't worry.
static-rr Each server is used in turns, according to their weights.
This algorithm is as similar to roundrobin except that it is
static, which means that changing a server's weight on the
fly will have no effect. On the other hand, it has no design
limitation on the number of servers, and when a server goes
up, it is always immediately reintroduced into the farm, once
the full map is recomputed. It also uses slightly less CPU to
run (around -1%).
leastconn The server with the lowest number of connections receives the
connection. Round-robin is performed within groups of servers
of the same load to ensure that all servers will be used. Use
of this algorithm is recommended where very long sessions are
expected, such as LDAP, SQL, TSE, etc... but is not very well
suited for protocols using short sessions such as HTTP. This
algorithm is dynamic, which means that server weights may be
adjusted on the fly for slow starts for instance.
source The source IP address is hashed and divided by the total
weight of the running servers to designate which server will
receive the request. This ensures that the same client IP
address will always reach the same server as long as no
server goes down or up. If the hash result changes due to the
number of running servers changing, many clients will be
directed to a different server. This algorithm is generally
used in TCP mode where no cookie may be inserted. It may also
be used on the Internet to provide a best-effort stickiness
to clients which refuse session cookies. This algorithm is
static by default, which means that changing a server's
weight on the fly will have no effect, but this can be
changed using "hash-type".
uri This algorithm hashes either the left part of the URI (before
the question mark) or the whole URI (if the "whole" parameter
is present) and divides the hash value by the total weight of
the running servers. The result designates which server will
receive the request. This ensures that the same URI will
always be directed to the same server as long as no server
goes up or down. This is used with proxy caches and
anti-virus proxies in order to maximize the cache hit rate.
Note that this algorithm may only be used in an HTTP backend.
This algorithm is static by default, which means that
changing a server's weight on the fly will have no effect,
but this can be changed using "hash-type".
This algorithm supports two optional parameters "len" and
"depth", both followed by a positive integer number. These
options may be helpful when it is needed to balance servers
based on the beginning of the URI only. The "len" parameter
indicates that the algorithm should only consider that many
characters at the beginning of the URI to compute the hash.
Note that having "len" set to 1 rarely makes sense since most
URIs start with a leading "/".
The "depth" parameter indicates the maximum directory depth
to be used to compute the hash. One level is counted for each
slash in the request. If both parameters are specified, the
evaluation stops when either is reached.
url_param The URL parameter specified in argument will be looked up in
the query string of each HTTP GET request.
If the modifier "check_post" is used, then an HTTP POST
request entity will be searched for the parameter argument,
when it is not found in a query string after a question mark
('?') in the URL. Optionally, specify a number of octets to
wait for before attempting to search the message body. If the
entity can not be searched, then round robin is used for each
request. For instance, if your clients always send the LB
parameter in the first 128 bytes, then specify that. The
default is 48. The entity data will not be scanned until the
required number of octets have arrived at the gateway, this
is the minimum of: (default/max_wait, Content-Length or first
chunk length). If Content-Length is missing or zero, it does
not need to wait for more data than the client promised to
send. When Content-Length is present and larger than
, then waiting is limited to and it is
assumed that this will be enough data to search for the
presence of the parameter. In the unlikely event that
Transfer-Encoding: chunked is used, only the first chunk is
scanned. Parameter values separated by a chunk boundary, may
be randomly balanced if at all.
If the parameter is found followed by an equal sign ('=') and
a value, then the value is hashed and divided by the total
weight of the running servers. The result designates which
server will receive the request.
This is used to track user identifiers in requests and ensure
that a same user ID will always be sent to the same server as
long as no server goes up or down. If no value is found or if
the parameter is not found, then a round robin algorithm is
applied. Note that this algorithm may only be used in an HTTP
backend. This algorithm is static by default, which means
that changing a server's weight on the fly will have no
effect, but this can be changed using "hash-type".
hdr() The HTTP header will be looked up in each HTTP request.
Just as with the equivalent ACL 'hdr()' function, the header
name in parenthesis is not case sensitive. If the header is
absent or if it does not contain any value, the roundrobin
algorithm is applied instead.
An optional 'use_domain_only' parameter is available, for
reducing the hash algorithm to the main domain part with some
specific headers such as 'Host'. For instance, in the Host
value "haproxy.1wt.eu", only "1wt" will be considered.
This algorithm is static by default, which means that
changing a server's weight on the fly will have no effect,
but this can be changed using "hash-type".
rdp-cookie
rdp-cookie(name)
The RDP cookie (or "mstshash" if omitted) will be
looked up and hashed for each incoming TCP request. Just as
with the equivalent ACL 'req_rdp_cookie()' function, the name
is not case-sensitive. This mechanism is useful as a degraded
persistence mode, as it makes it possible to always send the
same user (or the same session ID) to the same server. If the
cookie is not found, the normal roundrobin algorithm is
used instead.
Note that for this to work, the frontend must ensure that an
RDP cookie is already present in the request buffer. For this
you must use 'tcp-request content accept' rule combined with
a 'req_rdp_cookie_cnt' ACL.
This algorithm is static by default, which means that
changing a server's weight on the fly will have no effect,
but this can be changed using "hash-type".
is an optional list of arguments which may be needed by some
algorithms. Right now, only "url_param" and "uri" support an
optional argument.
balance uri [len ] [depth ]
balance url_param [check_post []]
The load balancing algorithm of a backend is set to roundrobin when no other
algorithm, mode nor option have been set. The algorithm may only be set once
for each backend.
Examples :
balance roundrobin
balance url_param userid
balance url_param session_id check_post 64
balance hdr(User-Agent)
balance hdr(host)
balance hdr(Host) use_domain_only
Note: the following caveats and limitations on using the "check_post"
extension with "url_param" must be considered :
- all POST requests are eligible for consideration, because there is no way
to determine if the parameters will be found in the body or entity which
may contain binary data. Therefore another method may be required to
restrict consideration of POST requests that have no URL parameters in
the body. (see acl reqideny http_end)
- using a value larger than the request buffer size does not
make sense and is useless. The buffer size is set at build time, and
defaults to 16 kB.
- Content-Encoding is not supported, the parameter search will probably
fail; and load balancing will fall back to Round Robin.
- Expect: 100-continue is not supported, load balancing will fall back to
Round Robin.
- Transfer-Encoding (RFC2616 3.6.1) is only supported in the first chunk.
If the entire parameter value is not present in the first chunk, the
selection of server is undefined (actually, defined by how little
actually appeared in the first chunk).
- This feature does not support generation of a 100, 411 or 501 response.
- In some cases, requesting "check_post" MAY attempt to scan the entire
contents of a message body. Scanning normally terminates when linear
white space or control characters are found, indicating the end of what
might be a URL parameter list. This is probably not a concern with SGML
type message bodies.
See also : "dispatch", "cookie", "appsession", "transparent", "hash-type" and
"http_proxy".
bind []: [, ...]
bind []: [, ...] interface
bind []: [, ...] mss
bind []: [, ...] transparent
bind []: [, ...] id
bind []: [, ...] name
bind []: [, ...] defer-accept
Define one or several listening addresses and/or ports in a frontend.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is optional and can be a host name, an IPv4 address, an IPv6
address, or '*'. It designates the address the frontend will
listen on. If unset, all IPv4 addresses of the system will be
listened on. The same will apply for '*' or the system's
special address "0.0.0.0".
is either a unique TCP port, or a port range for which the
proxy will accept connections for the IP address specified
above. The port is mandatory. Note that in the case of an
IPv6 address, the port is always the number after the last
colon (':'). A range can either be :
- a numerical port (ex: '80')
- a dash-delimited ports range explicitly stating the lower
and upper bounds (ex: '2000-2100') which are included in
the range.
Particular care must be taken against port ranges, because
every couple consumes one socket (= a file
descriptor), so it's easy to consume lots of descriptors
with a simple range, and to run out of sockets. Also, each
couple must be used only once among all
instances running on a same system. Please note that binding
to ports lower than 1024 generally require particular
privileges to start the program, which are independant of
the 'uid' parameter.
is an optional physical interface name. This is currently
only supported on Linux. The interface must be a physical
interface, not an aliased interface. When specified, all
addresses on the same line will only be accepted if the
incoming packet physically come through the designated
interface. It is also possible to bind multiple frontends to
the same address if they are bound to different interfaces.
Note that binding to a physical interface requires root
privileges.
is an optional TCP Maximum Segment Size (MSS) value to be
advertised on incoming connections. This can be used to force
a lower MSS for certain specific ports, for instance for
connections passing through a VPN. Note that this relies on a
kernel feature which is theorically supported under Linux but
was buggy in all versions prior to 2.6.28. It may or may not
work on other operating systems. The commonly advertised
value on Ethernet networks is 1460 = 1500(MTU) - 40(IP+TCP).
is a persistent value for socket ID. Must be positive and
unique in the proxy. An unused value will automatically be
assigned if unset. Can only be used when defining only a
single socket.
is an optional name provided for stats
transparent is an optional keyword which is supported only on certain
Linux kernels. It indicates that the addresses will be bound
even if they do not belong to the local machine. Any packet
targeting any of these addresses will be caught just as if
the address was locally configured. This normally requires
that IP forwarding is enabled. Caution! do not use this with
the default address '*', as it would redirect any traffic for
the specified port. This keyword is available only when
HAProxy is built with USE_LINUX_TPROXY=1.
defer-accept is an optional keyword which is supported only on certain
Linux kernels. It states that a connection will only be
accepted once some data arrive on it, or at worst after the
first retransmit. This should be used only on protocols for
which the client talks first (eg: HTTP). It can slightly
improve performance by ensuring that most of the request is
already available when the connection is accepted. On the
other hand, it will not be able to detect connections which
don't talk. It is important to note that this option is
broken in all kernels up to 2.6.31, as the connection is
never accepted until the client talks. This can cause issues
with front firewalls which would see an established
connection while the proxy will only see it in SYN_RECV.
It is possible to specify a list of address:port combinations delimited by
commas. The frontend will then listen on all of these addresses. There is no
fixed limit to the number of addresses and ports which can be listened on in
a frontend, as well as there is no limit to the number of "bind" statements
in a frontend.
Example :
listen http_proxy
bind :80,:443
bind 10.0.0.1:10080,10.0.0.1:10443
See also : "source".
bind-process [ all | odd | even | ] ...
Limit visibility of an instance to a certain set of processes numbers.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments :
all All process will see this instance. This is the default. It
may be used to override a default value.
odd This instance will be enabled on processes 1,3,5,...31. This
option may be combined with other numbers.
even This instance will be enabled on processes 2,4,6,...32. This
option may be combined with other numbers. Do not use it
with less than 2 processes otherwise some instances might be
missing from all processes.
number The instance will be enabled on this process number, between
1 and 32. You must be careful not to reference a process
number greater than the configured global.nbproc, otherwise
some instances might be missing from all processes.
This keyword limits binding of certain instances to certain processes. This
is useful in order not to have too many processes listening to the same
ports. For instance, on a dual-core machine, it might make sense to set
'nbproc 2' in the global section, then distributes the listeners among 'odd'
and 'even' instances.
At the moment, it is not possible to reference more than 32 processes using
this keyword, but this should be more than enough for most setups. Please
note that 'all' really means all processes and is not limited to the first
32.
If some backends are referenced by frontends bound to other processes, the
backend automatically inherits the frontend's processes.
Example :
listen app_ip1
bind 10.0.0.1:80
bind-process odd
listen app_ip2
bind 10.0.0.2:80
bind-process even
listen management
bind 10.0.0.3:80
bind-process 1 2 3 4
See also : "nbproc" in global section.
block { if | unless }
Block a layer 7 request if/unless a condition is matched
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | yes
The HTTP request will be blocked very early in the layer 7 processing
if/unless is matched. A 403 error will be returned if the request
is blocked. The condition has to reference ACLs (see section 7). This is
typically used to deny access to certain sensitive resources if some
conditions are met or not met. There is no fixed limit to the number of
"block" statements per instance.
Example:
acl invalid_src src 0.0.0.0/7 224.0.0.0/3
acl invalid_src src_port 0:1023
acl local_dst hdr(host) -i localhost
block if invalid_src || local_dst
See section 7 about ACL usage.
capture cookie len
Capture and log a cookie in the request and in the response.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is the beginning of the name of the cookie to capture. In order
to match the exact name, simply suffix the name with an equal
sign ('='). The full name will appear in the logs, which is
useful with application servers which adjust both the cookie name
and value (eg: ASPSESSIONXXXXX).
is the maximum number of characters to report in the logs, which
include the cookie name, the equal sign and the value, all in the
standard "name=value" form. The string will be truncated on the
right if it exceeds .
Only the first cookie is captured. Both the "cookie" request headers and the
"set-cookie" response headers are monitored. This is particularly useful to
check for application bugs causing session crossing or stealing between
users, because generally the user's cookies can only change on a login page.
When the cookie was not presented by the client, the associated log column
will report "-". When a request does not cause a cookie to be assigned by the
server, a "-" is reported in the response column.
The capture is performed in the frontend only because it is necessary that
the log format does not change for a given frontend depending on the
backends. This may change in the future. Note that there can be only one
"capture cookie" statement in a frontend. The maximum capture length is
configured in the sources by default to 64 characters. It is not possible to
specify a capture in a "defaults" section.
Example:
capture cookie ASPSESSION len 32
See also : "capture request header", "capture response header" as well as
section 8 about logging.
capture request header len
Capture and log the first occurrence of the specified request header.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is the name of the header to capture. The header names are not
case-sensitive, but it is a common practice to write them as they
appear in the requests, with the first letter of each word in
upper case. The header name will not appear in the logs, only the
value is reported, but the position in the logs is respected.
is the maximum number of characters to extract from the value and
report in the logs. The string will be truncated on the right if
it exceeds .
Only the first value of the last occurrence of the header is captured. The
value will be added to the logs between braces ('{}'). If multiple headers
are captured, they will be delimited by a vertical bar ('|') and will appear
in the same order they were declared in the configuration. Non-existent
headers will be logged just as an empty string. Common uses for request
header captures include the "Host" field in virtual hosting environments, the
"Content-length" when uploads are supported, "User-agent" to quickly
differentiate between real users and robots, and "X-Forwarded-For" in proxied
environments to find where the request came from.
Note that when capturing headers such as "User-agent", some spaces may be
logged, making the log analysis more difficult. Thus be careful about what
you log if you know your log parser is not smart enough to rely on the
braces.
There is no limit to the number of captured request headers, but each capture
is limited to 64 characters. In order to keep log format consistent for a
same frontend, header captures can only be declared in a frontend. It is not
possible to specify a capture in a "defaults" section.
Example:
capture request header Host len 15
capture request header X-Forwarded-For len 15
capture request header Referer len 15
See also : "capture cookie", "capture response header" as well as section 8
about logging.
capture response header len
Capture and log the first occurrence of the specified response header.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is the name of the header to capture. The header names are not
case-sensitive, but it is a common practice to write them as they
appear in the response, with the first letter of each word in
upper case. The header name will not appear in the logs, only the
value is reported, but the position in the logs is respected.
is the maximum number of characters to extract from the value and
report in the logs. The string will be truncated on the right if
it exceeds .
Only the first value of the last occurrence of the header is captured. The
result will be added to the logs between braces ('{}') after the captured
request headers. If multiple headers are captured, they will be delimited by
a vertical bar ('|') and will appear in the same order they were declared in
the configuration. Non-existent headers will be logged just as an empty
string. Common uses for response header captures include the "Content-length"
header which indicates how many bytes are expected to be returned, the
"Location" header to track redirections.
There is no limit to the number of captured response headers, but each
capture is limited to 64 characters. In order to keep log format consistent
for a same frontend, header captures can only be declared in a frontend. It
is not possible to specify a capture in a "defaults" section.
Example:
capture response header Content-length len 9
capture response header Location len 15
See also : "capture cookie", "capture request header" as well as section 8
about logging.
clitimeout (deprecated)
Set the maximum inactivity time on the client side.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is the timeout value is specified in milliseconds by default, but
can be in any other unit if the number is suffixed by the unit,
as explained at the top of this document.
The inactivity timeout applies when the client is expected to acknowledge or
send data. In HTTP mode, this timeout is particularly important to consider
during the first phase, when the client sends the request, and during the
response while it is reading data sent by the server. The value is specified
in milliseconds by default, but can be in any other unit if the number is
suffixed by the unit, as specified at the top of this document. In TCP mode
(and to a lesser extent, in HTTP mode), it is highly recommended that the
client timeout remains equal to the server timeout in order to avoid complex
situations to debug. It is a good practice to cover one or several TCP packet
losses by specifying timeouts that are slightly above multiples of 3 seconds
(eg: 4 or 5 seconds).
This parameter is specific to frontends, but can be specified once for all in
"defaults" sections. This is in fact one of the easiest solutions not to
forget about it. An unspecified timeout results in an infinite timeout, which
is not recommended. Such a usage is accepted and works but reports a warning
during startup because it may results in accumulation of expired sessions in
the system if the system's timeouts are not configured either.
This parameter is provided for compatibility but is currently deprecated.
Please use "timeout client" instead.
See also : "timeout client", "timeout http-request", "timeout server", and
"srvtimeout".
contimeout (deprecated)
Set the maximum time to wait for a connection attempt to a server to succeed.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the timeout value is specified in milliseconds by default, but
can be in any other unit if the number is suffixed by the unit,
as explained at the top of this document.
If the server is located on the same LAN as haproxy, the connection should be
immediate (less than a few milliseconds). Anyway, it is a good practice to
cover one or several TCP packet losses by specifying timeouts that are
slightly above multiples of 3 seconds (eg: 4 or 5 seconds). By default, the
connect timeout also presets the queue timeout to the same value if this one
has not been specified. Historically, the contimeout was also used to set the
tarpit timeout in a listen section, which is not possible in a pure frontend.
This parameter is specific to backends, but can be specified once for all in
"defaults" sections. This is in fact one of the easiest solutions not to
forget about it. An unspecified timeout results in an infinite timeout, which
is not recommended. Such a usage is accepted and works but reports a warning
during startup because it may results in accumulation of failed sessions in
the system if the system's timeouts are not configured either.
This parameter is provided for backwards compatibility but is currently
deprecated. Please use "timeout connect", "timeout queue" or "timeout tarpit"
instead.
See also : "timeout connect", "timeout queue", "timeout tarpit",
"timeout server", "contimeout".
cookie [ rewrite | insert | prefix ] [ indirect ] [ nocache ]
[ postonly ] [ preserve ] [ httponly ] [ secure ]
[ domain ]* [ maxidle ] [ maxlife ]
Enable cookie-based persistence in a backend.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the name of the cookie which will be monitored, modified or
inserted in order to bring persistence. This cookie is sent to
the client via a "Set-Cookie" header in the response, and is
brought back by the client in a "Cookie" header in all requests.
Special care should be taken to choose a name which does not
conflict with any likely application cookie. Also, if the same
backends are subject to be used by the same clients (eg:
HTTP/HTTPS), care should be taken to use different cookie names
between all backends if persistence between them is not desired.
rewrite This keyword indicates that the cookie will be provided by the
server and that haproxy will have to modify its value to set the
server's identifier in it. This mode is handy when the management
of complex combinations of "Set-cookie" and "Cache-control"
headers is left to the application. The application can then
decide whether or not it is appropriate to emit a persistence
cookie. Since all responses should be monitored, this mode only
works in HTTP close mode. Unless the application behaviour is
very complex and/or broken, it is advised not to start with this
mode for new deployments. This keyword is incompatible with
"insert" and "prefix".
insert This keyword indicates that the persistence cookie will have to
be inserted by haproxy in server responses if the client did not
already have a cookie that would have permitted it to access this
server. When used without the "preserve" option, if the server
emits a cookie with the same name, it will be remove before
processing. For this reason, this mode can be used to upgrade
existing configurations running in the "rewrite" mode. The cookie
will only be a session cookie and will not be stored on the
client's disk. By default, unless the "indirect" option is added,
the server will see the cookies emitted by the client. Due to
caching effects, it is generally wise to add the "nocache" or
"postonly" keywords (see below). The "insert" keyword is not
compatible with "rewrite" and "prefix".
prefix This keyword indicates that instead of relying on a dedicated
cookie for the persistence, an existing one will be completed.
This may be needed in some specific environments where the client
does not support more than one single cookie and the application
already needs it. In this case, whenever the server sets a cookie
named , it will be prefixed with the server's identifier
and a delimiter. The prefix will be removed from all client
requests so that the server still finds the cookie it emitted.
Since all requests and responses are subject to being modified,
this mode requires the HTTP close mode. The "prefix" keyword is
not compatible with "rewrite" and "insert".
indirect When this option is specified, no cookie will be emitted to a
client which already has a valid one for the server which has
processed the request. If the server sets such a cookie itself,
it will be removed, unless the "preserve" option is also set. In
"insert" mode, this will additionally remove cookies from the
requests transmitted to the server, making the persistence
mechanism totally transparent from an application point of view.
nocache This option is recommended in conjunction with the insert mode
when there is a cache between the client and HAProxy, as it
ensures that a cacheable response will be tagged non-cacheable if
a cookie needs to be inserted. This is important because if all
persistence cookies are added on a cacheable home page for
instance, then all customers will then fetch the page from an
outer cache and will all share the same persistence cookie,
leading to one server receiving much more traffic than others.
See also the "insert" and "postonly" options.
postonly This option ensures that cookie insertion will only be performed
on responses to POST requests. It is an alternative to the
"nocache" option, because POST responses are not cacheable, so
this ensures that the persistence cookie will never get cached.
Since most sites do not need any sort of persistence before the
first POST which generally is a login request, this is a very
efficient method to optimize caching without risking to find a
persistence cookie in the cache.
See also the "insert" and "nocache" options.
preserve This option may only be used with "insert" and/or "indirect". It
allows the server to emit the persistence cookie itself. In this
case, if a cookie is found in the response, haproxy will leave it
untouched. This is useful in order to end persistence after a
logout request for instance. For this, the server just has to
emit a cookie with an invalid value (eg: empty) or with a date in
the past. By combining this mechanism with the "disable-on-404"
check option, it is possible to perform a completely graceful
shutdown because users will definitely leave the server after
they logout.
httponly This option tells haproxy to add an "HttpOnly" cookie attribute
when a cookie is inserted. This attribute is used so that a
user agent doesn't share the cookie with non-HTTP components.
Please check RFC6265 for more information on this attribute.
secure This option tells haproxy to add a "Secure" cookie attribute when
a cookie is inserted. This attribute is used so that a user agent
never emits this cookie over non-secure channels, which means
that a cookie learned with this flag will be presented only over
SSL/TLS connections. Please check RFC6265 for more information on
this attribute.
domain This option allows to specify the domain at which a cookie is
inserted. It requires exactly one parameter: a valid domain
name. If the domain begins with a dot, the browser is allowed to
use it for any host ending with that name. It is also possible to
specify several domain names by invoking this option multiple
times. Some browsers might have small limits on the number of
domains, so be careful when doing that. For the record, sending
10 domains to MSIE 6 or Firefox 2 works as expected.
maxidle This option allows inserted cookies to be ignored after some idle
time. It only works with insert-mode cookies. When a cookie is
sent to the client, the date this cookie was emitted is sent too.
Upon further presentations of this cookie, if the date is older
than the delay indicated by the parameter (in seconds), it will
be ignored. Otherwise, it will be refreshed if needed when the
response is sent to the client. This is particularly useful to
prevent users who never close their browsers from remaining for
too long on the same server (eg: after a farm size change). When
this option is set and a cookie has no date, it is always
accepted, but gets refreshed in the response. This maintains the
ability for admins to access their sites. Cookies that have a
date in the future further than 24 hours are ignored. Doing so
lets admins fix timezone issues without risking kicking users off
the site.
maxlife This option allows inserted cookies to be ignored after some life
time, whether they're in use or not. It only works with insert
mode cookies. When a cookie is first sent to the client, the date
this cookie was emitted is sent too. Upon further presentations
of this cookie, if the date is older than the delay indicated by
the parameter (in seconds), it will be ignored. If the cookie in
the request has no date, it is accepted and a date will be set.
Cookies that have a date in the future further than 24 hours are
ignored. Doing so lets admins fix timezone issues without risking
kicking users off the site. Contrary to maxidle, this value is
not refreshed, only the first visit date counts. Both maxidle and
maxlife may be used at the time. This is particularly useful to
prevent users who never close their browsers from remaining for
too long on the same server (eg: after a farm size change). This
is stronger than the maxidle method in that it forces a
redispatch after some absolute delay.
There can be only one persistence cookie per HTTP backend, and it can be
declared in a defaults section. The value of the cookie will be the value
indicated after the "cookie" keyword in a "server" statement. If no cookie
is declared for a given server, the cookie is not set.
Examples :
cookie JSESSIONID prefix
cookie SRV insert indirect nocache
cookie SRV insert postonly indirect
cookie SRV insert indirect nocache maxidle 30m maxlife 8h
See also : "appsession", "balance source", "capture cookie", "server"
and "ignore-persist".
default-server [param*]
Change default options for a server in a backend
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments:
is a list of parameters for this server. The "default-server"
keyword accepts an important number of options and has a complete
section dedicated to it. Please refer to section 5 for more
details.
Example :
default-server inter 1000 weight 13
See also: "server" and section 5 about server options
default_backend
Specify the backend to use when no "use_backend" rule has been matched.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | no
Arguments :
is the name of the backend to use.
When doing content-switching between frontend and backends using the
"use_backend" keyword, it is often useful to indicate which backend will be
used when no rule has matched. It generally is the dynamic backend which
will catch all undetermined requests.
Example :
use_backend dynamic if url_dyn
use_backend static if url_css url_img extension_img
default_backend dynamic
See also : "use_backend", "reqsetbe", "reqisetbe"
disabled
Disable a proxy, frontend or backend.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments :
The "disabled" keyword is used to disable an instance, mainly in order to
liberate a listening port or to temporarily disable a service. The instance
will still be created and its configuration will be checked, but it will be
created in the "stopped" state and will appear as such in the statistics. It
will not receive any traffic nor will it send any health-checks or logs. It
is possible to disable many instances at once by adding the "disabled"
keyword in a "defaults" section.
See also : "enabled"
dispatch :
Set a default server address
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | no | yes | yes
Arguments : none
is the IPv4 address of the default server. Alternatively, a
resolvable hostname is supported, but this name will be resolved
during start-up.
is a mandatory port specification. All connections will be sent
to this port, and it is not permitted to use port offsets as is
possible with normal servers.
The "dispatch" keyword designates a default server for use when no other
server can take the connection. In the past it was used to forward non
persistent connections to an auxiliary load balancer. Due to its simple
syntax, it has also been used for simple TCP relays. It is recommended not to
use it for more clarity, and to use the "server" directive instead.
See also : "server"
enabled
Enable a proxy, frontend or backend.
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments : none
The "enabled" keyword is used to explicitly enable an instance, when the
defaults has been set to "disabled". This is very rarely used.
See also : "disabled"
errorfile
Return a file contents instead of errors generated by HAProxy
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the HTTP status code. Currently, HAProxy is capable of
generating codes 200, 400, 403, 408, 500, 502, 503, and 504.
designates a file containing the full HTTP response. It is
recommended to follow the common practice of appending ".http" to
the filename so that people do not confuse the response with HTML
error pages, and to use absolute paths, since files are read
before any chroot is performed.
It is important to understand that this keyword is not meant to rewrite
errors returned by the server, but errors detected and returned by HAProxy.
This is why the list of supported errors is limited to a small set.
Code 200 is emitted in response to requests matching a "monitor-uri" rule.
The files are returned verbatim on the TCP socket. This allows any trick such
as redirections to another URL or site, as well as tricks to clean cookies,
force enable or disable caching, etc... The package provides default error
files returning the same contents as default errors.
The files should not exceed the configured buffer size (BUFSIZE), which
generally is 8 or 16 kB, otherwise they will be truncated. It is also wise
not to put any reference to local contents (eg: images) in order to avoid
loops between the client and HAProxy when all servers are down, causing an
error to be returned instead of an image. For better HTTP compliance, it is
recommended that all header lines end with CR-LF and not LF alone.
The files are read at the same time as the configuration and kept in memory.
For this reason, the errors continue to be returned even when the process is
chrooted, and no file change is considered while the process is running. A
simple method for developing those files consists in associating them to the
403 status code and interrogating a blocked URL.
See also : "errorloc", "errorloc302", "errorloc303"
Example :
errorfile 400 /etc/haproxy/errorfiles/400badreq.http
errorfile 403 /etc/haproxy/errorfiles/403forbid.http
errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/errorfiles/503sorry.http
errorloc
errorloc302
Return an HTTP redirection to a URL instead of errors generated by HAProxy
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the HTTP status code. Currently, HAProxy is capable of
generating codes 200, 400, 403, 408, 500, 502, 503, and 504.
it is the exact contents of the "Location" header. It may contain
either a relative URI to an error page hosted on the same site,
or an absolute URI designating an error page on another site.
Special care should be given to relative URIs to avoid redirect
loops if the URI itself may generate the same error (eg: 500).
It is important to understand that this keyword is not meant to rewrite
errors returned by the server, but errors detected and returned by HAProxy.
This is why the list of supported errors is limited to a small set.
Code 200 is emitted in response to requests matching a "monitor-uri" rule.
Note that both keyword return the HTTP 302 status code, which tells the
client to fetch the designated URL using the same HTTP method. This can be
quite problematic in case of non-GET methods such as POST, because the URL
sent to the client might not be allowed for something other than GET. To
workaround this problem, please use "errorloc303" which send the HTTP 303
status code, indicating to the client that the URL must be fetched with a GET
request.
See also : "errorfile", "errorloc303"
errorloc303
Return an HTTP redirection to a URL instead of errors generated by HAProxy
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the HTTP status code. Currently, HAProxy is capable of
generating codes 400, 403, 408, 500, 502, 503, and 504.
it is the exact contents of the "Location" header. It may contain
either a relative URI to an error page hosted on the same site,
or an absolute URI designating an error page on another site.
Special care should be given to relative URIs to avoid redirect
loops if the URI itself may generate the same error (eg: 500).
It is important to understand that this keyword is not meant to rewrite
errors returned by the server, but errors detected and returned by HAProxy.
This is why the list of supported errors is limited to a small set.
Code 200 is emitted in response to requests matching a "monitor-uri" rule.
Note that both keyword return the HTTP 303 status code, which tells the
client to fetch the designated URL using the same HTTP GET method. This
solves the usual problems associated with "errorloc" and the 302 code. It is
possible that some very old browsers designed before HTTP/1.1 do not support
it, but no such problem has been reported till now.
See also : "errorfile", "errorloc", "errorloc302"
force-persist { if | unless }
Declare a condition to force persistence on down servers
May be used in sections: defaults | frontend | listen | backend
no | yes | yes | yes
By default, requests are not dispatched to down servers. It is possible to
force this using "option persist", but it is unconditional and redispatches
to a valid server if "option redispatch" is set. That leaves with very little
possibilities to force some requests to reach a server which is artificially
marked down for maintenance operations.
The "force-persist" statement allows one to declare various ACL-based
conditions which, when met, will cause a request to ignore the down status of
a server and still try to connect to it. That makes it possible to start a
server, still replying an error to the health checks, and run a specially
configured browser to test the service. Among the handy methods, one could
use a specific source IP address, or a specific cookie. The cookie also has
the advantage that it can easily be added/removed on the browser from a test
page. Once the service is validated, it is then possible to open the service
to the world by returning a valid response to health checks.
The forced persistence is enabled when an "if" condition is met, or unless an
"unless" condition is met. The final redispatch is always disabled when this
is used.
See also : "option redispatch", "ignore-persist", "persist",
and section 7 about ACL usage.
fullconn
Specify at what backend load the servers will reach their maxconn
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the number of connections on the backend which will make the
servers use the maximal number of connections.
When a server has a "maxconn" parameter specified, it means that its number
of concurrent connections will never go higher. Additionally, if it has a
"minconn" parameter, it indicates a dynamic limit following the backend's
load. The server will then always accept at least connections,
never more than , and the limit will be on the ramp between both
values when the backend has less than concurrent connections. This
makes it possible to limit the load on the servers during normal loads, but
push it further for important loads without overloading the servers during
exceptional loads.
Example :
# The servers will accept between 100 and 1000 concurrent connections each
# and the maximum of 1000 will be reached when the backend reaches 10000
# connections.
backend dynamic
fullconn 10000
server srv1 dyn1:80 minconn 100 maxconn 1000
server srv2 dyn2:80 minconn 100 maxconn 1000
See also : "maxconn", "server"
grace
Maintain a proxy operational for some time after a soft stop
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | yes | yes | yes
Arguments :
is the time (by default in milliseconds) for which the instance
will remain operational with the frontend sockets still listening
when a soft-stop is received via the SIGUSR1 signal.
This may be used to ensure that the services disappear in a certain order.
This was designed so that frontends which are dedicated to monitoring by an
external equipment fail immediately while other ones remain up for the time
needed by the equipment to detect the failure.
Note that currently, there is very little benefit in using this parameter,
and it may in fact complicate the soft-reconfiguration process more than
simplify it.
hash-type
Specify a method to use for mapping hashes to servers
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
map-based the hash table is a static array containing all alive servers.
The hashes will be very smooth, will consider weights, but will
be static in that weight changes while a server is up will be
ignored. This means that there will be no slow start. Also,
since a server is selected by its position in the array, most
mappings are changed when the server count changes. This means
that when a server goes up or down, or when a server is added
to a farm, most connections will be redistributed to different
servers. This can be inconvenient with caches for instance.
consistent the hash table is a tree filled with many occurrences of each
server. The hash key is looked up in the tree and the closest
server is chosen. This hash is dynamic, it supports changing
weights while the servers are up, so it is compatible with the
slow start feature. It has the advantage that when a server
goes up or down, only its associations are moved. When a server
is added to the farm, only a few part of the mappings are
redistributed, making it an ideal algorithm for caches.
However, due to its principle, the algorithm will never be very
smooth and it may sometimes be necessary to adjust a server's
weight or its ID to get a more balanced distribution. In order
to get the same distribution on multiple load balancers, it is
important that all servers have the same IDs.
The default hash type is "map-based" and is recommended for most usages.
See also : "balance", "server"
http-check disable-on-404
Enable a maintenance mode upon HTTP/404 response to health-checks
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments : none
When this option is set, a server which returns an HTTP code 404 will be
excluded from further load-balancing, but will still receive persistent
connections. This provides a very convenient method for Web administrators
to perform a graceful shutdown of their servers. It is also important to note
that a server which is detected as failed while it was in this mode will not
generate an alert, just a notice. If the server responds 2xx or 3xx again, it
will immediately be reinserted into the farm. The status on the stats page
reports "NOLB" for a server in this mode. It is important to note that this
option only works in conjunction with the "httpchk" option. If this option
is used with "http-check expect", then it has precedence over it so that 404
responses will still be considered as soft-stop.
See also : "option httpchk", "http-check expect"
http-check expect [!]
Make HTTP health checks consider reponse contents or specific status codes
May be used in sections : defaults | frontend | listen | backend
yes | no | yes | yes
Arguments :
is a keyword indicating how to look for a specific pattern in the
response. The keyword may be one of "status", "rstatus",
"string", or "rstring". The keyword may be preceeded by an
exclamation mark ("!") to negate the match. Spaces are allowed
between the exclamation mark and the keyword. See below for more
details on the supported keywords.
is the pattern to look for. It may be a string or a regular
expression. If the pattern contains spaces, they must be escaped
with the usual backslash ('\').
By default, "option httpchk" considers that response statuses 2xx and 3xx
are valid, and that others are invalid. When "http-check expect" is used,
it defines what is considered valid or invalid. Only one "http-check"
statement is supported in a backend. If a server fails to respond or times
out, the check obviously fails. The available matches are :
status : test the exact string match for the HTTP status code.
A health check respose will be considered valid if the
response's status code is exactly this string. If the
"status" keyword is prefixed with "!", then the response
will be considered invalid if the status code matches.
rstatus : test a regular expression for the HTTP status code.
A health check respose will be considered valid if the
response's status code matches the expression. If the
"rstatus" keyword is prefixed with "!", then the response
will be considered invalid if the status code matches.
This is mostly used to check for multiple codes.
string : test the exact string match in the HTTP response body.
A health check respose will be considered valid if the
response's body contains this exact string. If the
"string" keyword is prefixed with "!", then the response
will be considered invalid if the body contains this
string. This can be used to look for a mandatory word at
the end of a dynamic page, or to detect a failure when a
specific error appears on the check page (eg: a stack
trace).
rstring : test a regular expression on the HTTP response body.
A health check respose will be considered valid if the
response's body matches this expression. If the "rstring"
keyword is prefixed with "!", then the response will be
considered invalid if the body matches the expression.
This can be used to look for a mandatory word at the end
of a dynamic page, or to detect a failure when a specific
error appears on the check page (eg: a stack trace).
It is important to note that the responses will be limited to a certain size
defined by the global "tune.chksize" option, which defaults to 16384 bytes.
Thus, too large responses may not contain the mandatory pattern when using
"string" or "rstring". If a large response is absolutely required, it is
possible to change the default max size by setting the global variable.
However, it is worth keeping in mind that parsing very large responses can
waste some CPU cycles, especially when regular expressions are used, and that
it is always better to focus the checks on smaller resources.
Also "http-check expect" doesn't support HTTP keep-alive. Keep in mind that it
will automatically append a "Connection: close" header, meaning that this
header should not be present in the request provided by "option httpchk".
Last, if "http-check expect" is combined with "http-check disable-on-404",
then this last one has precedence when the server responds with 404.
Examples :
# only accept status 200 as valid
http-check expect status 200
# consider SQL errors as errors
http-check expect ! string SQL\ Error
# consider status 5xx only as errors
http-check expect ! rstatus ^5
# check that we have a correct hexadecimal tag before /html
http-check expect rstring